cshenk wrote:

> Here's one tip: If a USA person (or Canadian) says 'macaroni' they almost
> always mean the smaller elbow shaped curved small ones. If they say
> 'noodles' they will almost always mean egg noodles of a smallish size.

Not in my household nor my parents before me. Macaroni was a class, but
it never EVER meant "elbow" shaped. My father in fact abhored that
particular shape!
We have always called each macaroni by name "ziti, rigatoni, farfalle"
and so on. Longer shapes are also always referred to by name "We're
having linguini" or "fettucini" or "spaghettini" and so on.
We never say "noodles" (too American, I guess?) nor did we grow up
saying "pasta" either <shrug>.